Connecticut facility locks out workers after they turn down contract

Employees of Connecticut's second largest nursing home picketed outside the facility Monday after they were locked out following their rejection of the company's contract offer.

Union workers at Arden House in Hamden, CT, turned down the company's offer on Friday. The lockout, initiated by the facility's parent company, Harborside Healthcare, began Sunday at 11 p.m. Replacement workers have filled in for the union workers whose contract expired at the end of June.

The New England Healthcare Employees Union has been negotiating a contract for 260 members at the facility since April. The Arden House has beds for more than 300 residents.

About 60,000 elderly or disabled Medicaid recipients in Louisiana are being told they should expect to lose their benefits in July, and advocates say more than a quarter of them could be forced out of the long-term care facilities they call home.